STL Shop Local 365+: Donut Drive-In

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Donut Drive-In

6525 Chippewa St.

St. Louis, MO

314-645-7714

Since this is a journal about life and shopping locally under all sorts of circumstances and for all kinds of needs, you should know our family is walking a challenging and heart rending path with Isabel. Isabel is the 19 year old daughter of our precious friends, Rick and Mary. She and her brothers and sisters bring sheer joy to our family. Last week Isabel suffered a complicated sort of stroke, statistically 3 in a million. She is seriously ill and still in a coma; however, her condition is stable and improving, oh so slowly.

More information about Isabel and her family can be found here.

In the midst of such heart ache it has always seemed to me life should come to a dramatic stasis, where all action stops, but I've lived a long time and that is not what happens. I've even come to be glad it doesn't. Work still has to be accomplished, houses cleaned, food prepared, shopping done.

Coming home from Micha's swim team I saw this sign:

an old neon sign speaks comfort to me,

especially when it says do-nuts :-).

Donut Drive-in opened in this location in 1953 after breaking ground in 1952. It looks pretty much the same as it did all those years ago. In those 62 years this little shop has had only 3 owners.

I didn't get to meet the owner, but this very nice woman gave me a little history. The Donut Drive-In has been making these tasty treats since the heyday of Route 66, when Chippewa was a quiet little road with an occasional restaurant and motel. With car ownership on the rise and gas prices low, road trips were a popular entertainment. And the Drive-In was a welcome stop along the way.

Drive-Ins have waned since the '50's but we in St. Louis are still privileged to have one of the originals.

Once inside, I'm not sure which I noticed first, the columns of boxes

or the rows of donuts.

Not only is this a great nostalgic stop, their donuts are really good and inexpensive.
Alton Brown of cooking show fame has even declared these to be his favorite donuts!

If they were good enough for Alton, we figured they would provide a fine celebration of the Dr.'s success in bringing Isabel to a stable condition as we yearn for her healing.

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A New Year, A New Look

It has been a year... a year of shopping, learning, meeting, and discovering; a year of new people, places, and routines; a year of sheer delight that I could never have anticipated when the adventure began March 1st, 2011. I've found it IS possible to shop economically and conveniently at smaller locally owned shops. What started as curiosity has concluded with deeper understanding and a commitment to a way of life. The independence of self-owned businesses seems to foster happier more creative people,which makes a better world for all of us. So let's continue, I can't think of a single reason to go back to the box stores, boring chains and internet.

About Jo

Hi, my name is Jo-Ellen McDonald. I like small stores, I truly do, though for years I've rarely shopped in them. I don't know why, really. I guess I was thinking it is more convenient and less expensive to shop in the big mega stores, and that someone else supported those little stores I liked so much.

Or was I thinking at all? Probably I was just doing what everyone else does.

This year I'm living differently. For 365 days I'm going to shop for goods and services only at local, independently owned businesses. I just want to try it. Will it be outrageously expensive? Or demand so much time as to be impossible to maintain? I don't know. But I want to try, because a lot of those little stores that I liked so much are gone, and I think that is pretty sad.

Some days there will simply be a quick journal entry, other days will feature a particular small business.

So come along with me and let's see what there is to learn this year. About the joys and struggles of small business owners. About whether or not there is a local place to buy computer ink cartridges or a broom. About how maybe we have saved a little in time and money but have lost too much in humanity and community.

STL Shop Local 365+